Designers Charlotte Dieckmann and Nils Ferber have design “Parasite Farm”, a full-cycle indoor garden that raises vegetables and composts their waste into fresh soil. This indoor garden and compost system is designed to fit into your existing furniture, with a series of grow beds with grow lights and a table-mounted compost bin.

To use the Parasite Farm, indoor gardeners can slide the grow beds into a shelf space, attach the grow light above it, lay down a bed of starter soil and sow their seeds of choice. As the herbs and vegetables grow, produce can be removed and used, even sliced up on the attached cutting board that acts as a seal for the compost bin. Waste drops into the compost where it is naturally processed into soil and liquid fertilizer over time. This system looks excellent for growing herbs and small produce– like peppers, beans and lettuces.

Interior Growing system:
Our first unit will be able to produce lettuce and herb varieties.
We will be using a modified design of a multi-channel NFT system.
Our system adds a filtration component to the reservoir to extend the
water that each harvest requires. LED Grow lights will provide plants with the right color light that is essential for plant growth. Using less power than other grow lights, the LED lights are also more efficient by not adding unnecessary heat to the plant and to the climate.

Environmental Controllers:
Our system includes monitoring equipment to allow the most novice gardener to manage a full harvest. By notifying the grower of what the system needs,
each unit can be configured to keep you on point to reach your desired harvest. The use of beneficial bugs like ladybugs can make maintaining a pesticide and herbicide free climate an easy task.

Via [Kickstater]

Fransesco’s projects is based on air purification from the CO2 excess produced by the overcrowding of people in train. These plants will be visible to the passengers inside the cabin as well as to the people outside away from the train. The reason for making it transparent to the external side, is to allow sun rays enter inside, which is very essential for the growth of plants.

The carbon dioxide gases are absorbed by the plants through small ports. They undergo certain chemical reactions and released oxygen back to the passenger cabin through small outlets. The released air is highly purified; thus, creates a comfortable atmosphere to the passengers in the train.

OpenHydro and French utility company EDF are in the final stage of deploying the first of four 16m tidal turbines off the coast of Paimpol-Bréhat.

The first stage of a project which in 2012 will create the world’s largest tidal array generating power onto the French grid. The turbines are supplied by Greenore-based OpenHydro and each has the capacity to generate over 2MW of energy.

Openhydro and its partner DCNS have now completed the assembly of the first turbine for the Paimpol-Bréhat project. The installation is performed using the custom designed installation barge, the ‘Openhydro Triskell’.

James Ives, chief executive, OpenHydro, said: We are delighted to be working with EDF on what is set to be the world’s first large-scale, grid-connected tidal energy farm and France’s first offshore tidal installation. EDF’S vision to develop this exciting project places France and EDF at the forefront of this new form of renewable energy generation.’

Via [The Argus]

Since, the design is eco friendly and sustainable in nature, the designer has made use of solar protection panels on the facade so as to keep the building at a comfortable temperature. Geothermal energy is also tapped to meet some of the electricity requirements of the structure. Apart from that the ramps are affixed with rainwater collectors and the roof-top has a rainwater harvesting mechanism in place too.

Via [designbuzz]

The architects designed a modern open plan space which houses a living area, gourmet kitchen that is equipped with upscale stainless steel appliances, bar and a video hall. The living area seems huge and this is possible due to the floor to ceiling windows and the skyscraper picture on one of the walls. Furthermore the bar has a sculpture like a mountain form behind it, which is also used for storage and captures light beautifully.

From a conceptual point of view the eco-friendly 2,228 square feet (207 square meters) loft was designed as a single open-plan space with a great lounge, containing a living room, gourmet kitchen, bar andvideo hall, all designed to meet the needs of a hectic family’s everyday life.

Other systems such as water recycling minimises the use and wastages of water in this vast building. Other systems such as water recycling minimises the use and wastages of water in this vast building.

Sebastian Bergne says: ‘Its pitched roof references reflect the architecture that surrounds it, while the plants inside bring nature back to this area once famous for its garden trade. In daylight, the structure looks very much like an ordinary suburban greenhouse dropped into a new environment. Yet at night, it assumes another character entirely. It is transformed into a magical box, glowing and lit it seems, by the life of the plants it contains.’

The designer Bacsac used as material to create their plant bag a geotextile tissue. This one is not only relatively light, it also offers ideal conditions for your plants to grow: it ensures that the soil breathes, it is waterproof and it limits evaporation.

Bacsquare is the perfect frame for your private herbs-garden, a small flowerbed or to cultivate vegetables. The plant bag is available in different sizes and it can therefore be adapted to the conditions of your balcony or terrace.

By exploring new materials in environmentally friendly housing design 2:pm Architectures Collectives successfully replaces wood with steel for their Eco project.  The feature that makes these housing units stand apart is the fact that the units do not contain any wood at all. the project is the choice of expressing a habitat in the density of implantation and two totaling 11 units.

2:pm Architectures collectives say:

It is important to prove that today, building a sustainable and energy-efficient building is not necessarily synonymous with building in wood. Sustainable development must begin with a general reflection of the building process, including its materials. Therefore, the project is the choice of expressing a habitat in the density of implantation and two totaling 11 units.

These two types present two ways to integrate into the site, two wills of dialogue with the slope which meet the demands of the various programmatic typologies. Indeed the extensive use of a material can quickly become detrimental to the economic market. Steel is a building material to take into account for sustainable development considerations in many aspects. The steel is recycled and reclaimed 100% and is reusable indefinitely with all of its original properties found after the treatment of the material.

More often, it is produced locally and the routing of structural work presents a low carbon amount. The implementation of the steel framing system under construction is done by assembly. The components of the steel housing is easy to disassemble, recover and recycle. The building to the east of the site has a slender volume, placed horizontally on the rock with an opening on the panorama from the bed of the Loire.

The roof is single but has inflections in conjunction with the edge of the Crete rear of the cliffs. The two buildings to the west offer vertical houses reminiscent of the country and a single slope roof with quartz cut slightly squared to resonate with houses arranged in excavations troglodytes. These buildings offer a contemporary reinterpretation of the local habitat while maintaining the characteristics of vernacular architecture in Turkey: fine facades on the street, shooting vertical, single slope roof, and accessibility by exterior stairs.

Malka Architecture
Via [archdaily]

A solar film bikini that charges your iPod! (With a USB connection!) The suit is a custom made bikini swimsuit retrofitted with 1″ x 4″ photovoltaic film strips sewn together in series with conductive thread. The cells terminate in a 5 volt regulator into a female USB connection. Don’t worry guys! The male version of the Solar Bikini (coming soon) called the iDrink, features a greater surface area which equals more output voltage. This additional juice is used to power a 1.5 amp peltier junction which cools a single beer in a custom coozy. Double cool! The iDrink solar swimware line is perfect for those who want to go the beach, listen to music, and enjoy a cold and deserved beverage, but who don’t want to get wet! You’ve got tunes, you’ve got beer, you’ve got sun, and you’ve got eachother in swimwear.